sexta-feira, 29 de outubro de 2010

Acording to Vocaloid Wiki, like VY1 was confirmed "Feminine", VY2 has been confirmed to be a "Masculine" voice. VY2 will share the same intention as VY1 of being a Vocaloid without set gender, face or voice.

There will be a new Vocaloid joining the family and this time round Sony Music has decided to join in the market. This Vocaloid will be distributed under Sony Music Distribution and the name for the Japanese male Vocaloid (utilizing the Vocaloid2 engine) will be known as Utatane Piko (歌手音ピコ) The kanji for "Utatane" literally means "sound of singer". For those wondering Piko is a popular singer on Nico Nico Douga with his community here. Piko is known for his high pitch and woman-like voice, and his Vocaloid will also has wider range than any other existing Vocaloids.

He is expected to be released on December 8th 2010 at a price of 15,750 yen (tax included) and you can pre-order the software over at Sony Music Shop.

sábado, 23 de outubro de 2010

Miku is a computer application but that hasn’t stopped her from conquering the music world by playing to thousands at live concerts and getting millions of hits on YouTube.Technically, she is a virtual music synthesiser programme which uses technology called Vocaloid to allow PC users to create their own music. Hatsune is a character from the Vocaloid series developed by Yamaha.

The software gives you ‘a singer in a box’, enabling users to synthesise singing by typing in lyrics and a melody. Users can add effects and change the voice tone and pronunciations.

Although intended for musicians, Vocaloid is popular with video artists. Japanese company Crypton Future Media took the technology and created the Miku avatar in 2007.

The name is made up of the Japanese for ‘first’ (hatsu), ‘sound’ (ne) and ‘future’ (miku). So now you know. She rose to popularity through the website Nico Nico Douga (smile smile video), a Japanese equivalent of YouTube. Users began making their own music using Miku and lent her voice to existing songs.

Miku’s voice is sampled from Japanese voice actress Saki Fujita. Different versions of the voice are available – from gentle to heartbroken.

domingo, 17 de outubro de 2010

Recently it was made known during the “Hatsune Miku: Meet the Makers of a Digital Idol” panel over at New York Comic Con/New York Anime Festival 2010 with regards to the future plans for Miku and the rest of Crypton Vocaloids in the US according to the co-creators of Vocaloid, Hiroyuki Ito and Wataru Sasaki.

We could even have a English version of Miku in the future.

Plans for a English Miku to be materialized provided her Facebook has more than 39,390 likes.(39 could be pronounced as “Miku” or “Sankyu” in Japanese, which means “Thank You” in English)

Kagamine Appends scheduled to be released in December 2010.

Possibility of a Vocaloid shop opening in the US should there be enough demand for it.

On October 1st, ANN announced that Hatsune Miku has two more concerts, another one in San Francisco, and one in New York:

The Viz Cinema in San Francisco’s Japantown district has scheduled a October 11 screening of virtual idol Hatsune Miku’s “film concert” with the idol’s creator as an in-person special guest. The show is billed as an “encore” to the previous screening of the concert, Hatsune Miku’s first official U.S. appearance, at the September 19 J-Pop Summit Festival. The New York Anime Festival has also scheduled a screening of the concert for this year’s event, which takes place October 8 to 10. The concert is scheduled for Saturday, October 9 at 11:45 a.m. Hatsune’s creators will also be guests at the convention.

Looks like the online petition seems to be working. Let's see where is Miku going next time!

domingo, 10 de outubro de 2010

Moe (もえ・萌え): Literally meaning “to bud” and a pun on the homonym “to burn”. It is used among otaku to mean getting fired up for budding young beauties. A character described as moe today is an amalgam of Lolicon and Bishoujo features. Most are infantile and bright and have massive, wet, dog-like eyes. They can seem almost animal-like, alien, or androgynous. The appeal of moe features relates to childlike purity, so it should come as no surprise that moe characteristics tend to be younger than Kawaii Bishoujo schoolgirls. The lolicon image is now considered too “real”, and too sexual, so moe is used instead to define a fantasy love or desire.